


I Wot There Lies a New-Slain Knight

by Gileonnen



Category: English and Scottish Popular Ballads - Child
Genre: Crossover, Drabble, Gen, Murder, Sibling Rivalry, Symbolic Crows, Yuletide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-24
Updated: 2009-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-05 06:01:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gileonnen/pseuds/Gileonnen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"In ahint yon auld fail dyke, / I wot there lies a new slain knight; / And nane do ken that he lies there, / But his hawk, his hound an his lady fair."</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Wot There Lies a New-Slain Knight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Measured_Words](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Measured_Words/gifts).



> A crossover between the well-known ballad 'Twa Corbies' and the somewhat less well-known ballad 'Edward': http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch013.htm

There are ravens upon his brother's body, although they scatter at Edward's approach. Their black wings shroud John's snow-pale skin, their beaks and claws gleaming blood-touched in the sunlight.

Were he a kinder man, he would pile stones on John's corpse to shield it from the birds; were he a crueler one, he would light that golden hair aflame.

It is enough to see him laid out upon the forest floor, his feet to the old dyke and his empty eye sockets toward heaven. John's hawk will perch; his hound will skulk home--

\--and Edward's wife will not stray again.


End file.
